In 2018, a total of 156,400 industrial robots were sold in China, soaring by 14.97% on an annualized basis, making China be the largest consumer of industrial robots in the world for six consecutive years. The burgeoning development of industrial robots is facilitated by the two below. First, the applied markets-- automobile, high-end equipment manufacturing and electronics & appliances -- have developed radically; second, the innovation capability of Chinese industrial robots has been improved progressively and localization of core components has risen.

Concerning robot types, articulated handling robot still prevailed in 2018, and its strong sales growth serves as a stimulus for the quality improvement of Chinese robots. By application, handling and welding robots are still in a dominant position, and the sales volume of robots for processing (laser cutting, mechanical cutting, deburring, polishing, etc.) also increased a lot.

Speed reducer, controller and servo system are the core components of an industrial robot, sharing more than 70% of the total cost. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in localization of controllers and servo systems, but has tried in vain in mass production of speed reducers due to the high technical barriers. The Chinese speed reducer market has been monopolized by Japanese companies (Nabtesco’s RV speed reducers occupy about 60%, and Harmonica’s harmonic speed reducers make up about 15%), while Chinese players rely on imports heavily. In the future, only breakthroughs have been made in speed reducer can bring a rosy outlook for Chinese robots.

At present, Switzerland ABB, Germany KUKA, Japan FANUC and Yaskawa occupy about 60% of the Chinese industrial robot market, and they are scrambling for more, particularly quicker expansion in 2018.

In the meantime, Chinese industrial robot producers performed brilliantly as well in 2018. ESTUN earned the revenue of RMB735 million from industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing systems in 2018, an upsurge of 50.28% over last year, and with an anticipated growth rate of 20% in 2019. Brotherobot outperformed its goal by selling 15,788 manipulators and 5,137 robots (compared with only 351 units in 2017), and ranked first in China by the sales volume of robots made in China. EFORT officially rolled out a new generation of ER3B-C10 robot, and in February 2019 it started its next-generation intelligent industrial robot R&D and industrialization project.

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